Can you handle the cute? More specifically, can you handle the cute that starts with a “k” that stands for “koala”?

Opening just in time for Memorial Day weekend, the San Diego Zoo’s new Conrad Prebys Australian Outback exhibit has twice as much space as the old koala exhibit, with room for bulldozing wombats, cackling kookaburra and snoozy wallabies. Not to mention more koalas and many more places to watch them do what koalas do.

And if you think that’s a whole lot of nothing, it’s time for you to take a walk on the wildly adorable side. Your insider’s guide to the Outback starts here.

You are (still) there: To find the new koala exhibit, head in the direction of the old one. When you hit the hand-carved Aboriginal-inspired totems, you have arrived. Extra explorer points if you can figure out which totem represents the platypus.

The space that used to house the koalas is now home to such native Outback birds as the fawn-breasted bowerbird, the Gouldian finch and the kookaburra, whose distinctive “ooh ooh, aah aah” cry is its own “Tarzan” soundtrack.

This wing of the exhibit is also Marsupial Central, with enclosures for Parma wallabies (smallish relative of the kangaroo) and badger-like wombats. If the Australian government grants its approval, it could also be home to Tasmanian devils. In the meantime, at least one wombat seemed ready to pick up the hell-raising slack.

“Wombats are basically the bulldozers of Australia,” San Diego Zoo Global Ambassador Rick Schwartz said, admiring some major excavation activity in the enclosure. “That was all done in about 24 hours.”

Sleepaway camp: OK, enough about the Other Marsupials. Where are the Cutest Animals Since Kittens and Possibly Pandas?

The new and much-expanded koala portion of the Outback exhibit is across the road next to Sydney’s Grill restaurant. A raised walkway takes you around the elegant new Queenslander House education center while putting you eyeball to eyeball with the zoo’s tree-roosting koalas. The males and females each have their own area (the better to keep breeding under control), and all 21 animals have oodles of room to roam. If they were so inclined. Which they are not.

“Koalas sleep 18 to 20 hours a day,” Schwartz said during a tour of the outback. “That being said, when the moms have a (baby) joey, the joeys will wake them up. Just like humans, the kids keep the parents up at night.”

Swoon with a view: The new Outback is certainly better for the critters, but what about the humans? What’s in it for us? More of everything, including more exhibit areas where more koalas are hanging out in more trees, which means better viewing possibilities for everybody.

You’ll get the most shade at the male enclosure. For a great photo, stake out the perch across from the Queenslander classroom. That is the home of a 4-year-old koala named Burley, an official animal ambassador and the veteran of many TV appearances. He also has his own (unofficial) Twitter account.

Best potential “Wild Kingdom” moment: Getting an earful of the male koala bellow, in which the boys woo the ladies and/or ward off the competition with a guttural cry that sounds like a garbage disposal backing up.

Most aww-inspiring view: That would be in the female enclosure, where the three young joeys keep their moms awake and mobile while keeping visitors in a constant state of smitten. Even the ones who should be immune by now.

“I’ve done this work for 13 years,” Schwartz said, grinning as a joey turned its bright eyes his way. “And I still melt in the face of cuteness.”

Good day, mates: Like most of the zoo’s animals, the citizens of the Outback are the most active right after the park opens and just before it closes. And while time flies when you’re having fun, you will get a lot more out of your Outback visit if you don’t fly along with it.

“The biggest mistake I see people make is they rush through too quickly,” Schwartz said. “Stop and wait and watch. We have some beautiful birds here that you will never see anywhere else. Take the time to see the joeys and their moms. See the boys move from tree to tree.

“Look at that face,” he said, stealing a second look at the joey. “If you rushed by, you would have missed it.”